Never Say
by The-MarmaladeCat1
Summary: The thing that Hidan loves the most about Kakuzu...


This was written to answer the meme "What is it that Hidan loves most about Kakuzu?" requested by GSYH.

oOo

When he was a boy, Hidan would spend his time with Saobo, the crazy nin from Tamagoro's ill-fated team. Saobo spoke in riddles and talked of nothing but the glory of God. Hidan's teacher told him not to speak to the man, he was dangerous and insane, ever since _that_ incident which got half his team killed and left their team leader Tamagoro scarred and hideous.

But Hidan didn't listen, and his teacher kept on telling him "no", right up to the point where he came to drag the boy away from where he sat listening to the crazy old nin talk of Heaven. Hidan's teacher pulled him up by the neck and when Hidan called out to Saobo and Tamagoro to help him, Tamagoro shook his head and looked sideways at him and said, "No". Saobo went right on talking to God and didn't appear to be listening anyway which in itself was a form of denial.

Hidan was tired of being told "no" by teacher, by parents, by fellow students. So he took his knife and went to his teacher's house to solve his problem. There he distracted the man with talk about scrolls and when his back was turned drugged his sake. And then, when the man was slow enough for Hidan to manipulate, he plunged the knife into his sensei's neck and cut his throat to stop him from screaming.

After that he took his teacher's body with him and went to the rundown apartment that Tamagoro and Saobo shared. Only the crazy nin was in and when Hidan dumped the body of his sensei at the man's feet, declaring it a sacrifice for Saobi's god, the other nin went still and for the first time he spoke not a word at all. He looked then at Hidan, and there was something unreadable in his eyes.

After a while he went over to the shelf at the back of the room where he kept his scrolls and his books and his strange bottles and took down a single leather-bound volume. This he placed in Hidan's hands and said to him, "This is the Holy Book of our God. In here you will find everything you need to know."

"Teach me," Hidan said, and Saobo said, "No."

And then Tamagoro, that unlucky and thrice-cursed captain, also returned and when he saw the body of Hidan's teacher lying on the floor, he too went very still and the side of his face that was disfigured went tense and pale beneath the scars. He looked long at the body and the blood until Hidan said to him, "I did it for the glory of God," when really he meant to say, "I did it for me," but he was too young to see that then and ever after.

"Teach me your ways," Hidan said, but Tamagoro said, "No," and turned away from him.

"Go," said Saobo, "Because there are none here who understand the glory of God, and they will not love you for what you have done."

"Come with me," said Hidan, but again Saobo said, "No."

Then they took him to the edge of the Village and showed him the path to the world beyond. "All you need is within that book," said Saobo. "May God go with you."

And so Hidan set out along the road that lead to the wilds and behind him his village burned as their black guard sought the murderer of Hidan's teacher and were repelled by two ill-fated and cursed old nin.

Many years later, when Hidan is in the midst of a ritual to honour his God, he makes the cut in his flesh that will seal the circle and he looks over the blade to where his partner sits counting coins and waiting for him to finish. The man's eyes are blank and bored, or maybe furious and irritated, it is hard to tell in the light of candles that ring the clearing. Whatever his expression, on the inside he is impatient and full of thoughts of gold and bounties. It pains him to be waiting here whilst time flows on around them and his partner daubs blood in the dirt and burns incense that smells of the grave.

Hidan smiles over the welling of his blood and looks fondly across at his partner. For all their conflict, and beyond the clash of materialism versus spiritualism, they have their bonds. For in all the time they have been together, Kakuzu has sniped and growled, ranted and complained, but he has never told Hidan, "No."

And there he sits as Hidan makes the next cut and the candlelight glints off of gold coins and blood patters to the dirt. And that, right there, is what Hidan loves most about Kakuzu.


End file.
